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CIOs Sold on Flexible Consumption

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A high percentage of IT executives are embracing ‘as a service’ and cloud models, but some lower-level managers are concerned about security and integration.

Many CIOs and other tech executives have embraced flexible consumption, the subscription-based and pay-as-you-go IT services model. Flexible consumption offerings such as SaaS and other cloud-based products allow IT’s business customers to choose the services they consume and pay for. However, while CIOs are on board, many of their IT managers are not.

Ninety-one percent of senior IT executives, including CIOs, are championing flexible consumption offerings, according to the new “Deloitte Enterprise Technology Flexible Consumption Offerings Survey.”¹ By contrast, 66 percent of next-level-down IT managers have reservations about flexible consumption.²

‘Those who are hesitant to embrace flexible consumption are most concerned about security, integration challenges, and a lack of product features.’

The flexible consumption model allows IT customers to pay for only the services or products they use. Business customers can receive flexible and affordable IT services while gaining access to leading-edge IT capabilities. A key benefit: The model can adapt to the IT services customer’s needs and wants.

But many midlevel IT managers have lingering questions. Those who are hesitant to embrace flexible consumption are most concerned about security, integration challenges, and a lack of product features, according to the survey.

CIOs and other adopters see ways to deal with some of these concerns. About 60 percent of adopters say they’d find it useful to have a customer success manager available to help with adoption and other issues, and more than 70 percent say they’d be willing to pay for such a service from a vendor.

CIOs Want Personal, but Infrequent, Service

Flexible consumption adopters also prefer personalized service. Ninety-two percent say a dedicated salesperson would be well-received in the prepurchase phase.

Adopters are split, however, about how much follow-up they want after the sale is done, with about 47 percent preferring infrequent interaction with vendors. When support is needed, though, 83 percent want to receive it in person. More than 80 percent of CIOs and other adopters say they prefer receiving flexible consumption offerings from value-added resellers or systems integrators, as opposed to working directly with vendors or service providers.

Faced with choosing between a public cloud and a hybrid model, adopters haven’t yet reached consensus on their favored delivery mechanism of “as a service” technologies. Fifty-one percent prefer a hybrid delivery model, according to the Deloitte survey.

Flexible consumption can offer CIOs many benefits, and senior IT executives are buying into cloud computing, SaaS, and infrastructure-as-a-service products. The next step for CIOs will be to convince their IT managers.

1. An independent research firm conducted the “Deloitte Enterprise Technology Flexible Consumption Offerings Impact Survey” in the fall of 2016. The firm polled 550 senior IT executives across the globe.

CIOs Sold on Flexible Consumption

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About Deloitte Insights

Deloitte Insights for CIOs couples broad business insights with deep technical knowledge to help executives drive business and technology strategy, support business transformation, and enhance growth and productivity. Through fact-based research, technology perspectives and analyses, case studies and more, Deloitte Insights for CIOs informs the essential conversations in global, technology-led organizations. Learn more